what ever happened to common curtesy?

Have thank you cards gone the way of the horse and buggy? Have they become obsolete or saved only for the old fashioned?
I was thinking about all the functions and parties I've been to over the past year or two. Some of them were big fancy affairs, where big fancy gifts were expected and of course given. Some of them we received thank you cards promptly- much appriciated! Some of them we received nada! One particular event we went to and I forgot the gift so the day after the wedding the bride (my friend) came by to get it from me personally! I have yet to get a thank you card for this gift- that was almost a year ago. I also never received a thank you for the bridal shower gift i gave (and I hope she received, because I ended up leaving before she got to my gift as my little one had had enough and needed to go)That was OVER a year ago! I actually emailed my friend and asked her if she had my new address as we moved between the time of the events and the expected time frame for sending thank you cards (Normally 3 months IMO-although I had my thank you cards out 2 or 3 days after the wedding-refused to have to think about them while on our honeymoon) She replied that they hadn't sent them out yet- that was more than 6 months ago!!! Call me old fashioned but I am annoyed! I took time out of my schedule to go buy a gift for the shower, shlepped WAY out of my way to attend the shower, gave my hard earned moula for a wedding gift and then I never receive so much as a thank you!
There have been several other occassions lately that make me wonder if thank you is just not the chique way to express gratitude for what was given!!
A couple of baby gifts where thank you cards were not sent- one was a very old friend who sent out an electronic generic thank you to all the guests who attended the event ( that is better than no thank you at all but still very impersonal and again I have no idea that my specific gift was actually received by the intended recipient!!) and another similar situation. IMO a simple, we love the books or clothes or whatever would have been soooo nice!! A third event was a family wedding. We did not give a family gift but we only received our names on a thank you card written to all members of the family including my in-laws and my SIL's family- this was sent out to my in-laws house! Thank you cards were not sent for the shower either-but at that event teh Bride announce she wouldn't be sending thank you cards because she would be too busy between the shower date and the wedding- I guess that is okay then?Just not nice IMO!!

why oh why

do the constructions crews have to do their work during rush hour??? I have been late for work almost every day for the past week or two- why you ask? Well not the obvious my kids won't get ready in the morning, i slept in or I left late...they get ready just fine, I wake up at 5:30 and I always leave on time. It's the flipping construction on city streets that make me late. My normal 30-40 minute drive to work has been extended on some days to 50 or 60 minute+. The obvious solution might be to leave home earlier...a reasonable solution when one does not have kids but this is not an option. Daycare only opens at 7:30 for her and 7 for him - i refuse to drop him off at 7 am as I cannot pick him up before 5:30 and that makes for a very long day for him, which results in a very cranky kid in the evening.
I cannot move closer to the office. I cannot move work closer to home (I have tried-believe me!!!) SO the solution is- late for work every day!!! The joys of living in a huge city with no regard for the livelyhoods of commuters (lucky for me i work in a nice unionized environment where there is no way i could get fired for being late-now if i embellezled loads of $$ that might be a different story!!)

Public Service Environment Week

is coming this way soon. I volunteered to stand on the committee organizing this week of events. It is going to be interesting to see what ideas and projects actually go beyond the week to positively impact peoples thoughts and actions in everyday life.
Any ideas on what type of activities and events we can organize to create mass awareness of just HOW important the preservation of our environment is? I personally want to increase awareness of the effects our carbon footprint will have on future generations although some of the suggestions for taking public transit, walking or cycling to work are really not realistic in Toronto. (the transit system sucks, most people work too far to walk or even cycle to work) carpooling might be an option for people who don't have to drop off/pick up kids at daycare super early, just not an option for me at this point in my life.
I try not to use plastic bags- at least at the grocey store i always bring my own, if I take a plastic bag i always reuse it until it's falling apart. I try to bring a litterless lunch- which isn't always an easy task! any littter i do create i recycle when possible.
At work i always turn off my moniter at the end of the day. I recycle all the paper I use (i've tried to go paperless at my desk but found I just couldn't work as effectively so had to drop that idea.)
This whole Environment Week planning will be very interesting and an eye opener I'm sure!

Wii

My loving husband forgo my request for a new Coach purse for my birthday and got me Wii and Wii Fit instead. I was a little surprised at first but happy none-the-less. I haven't really had a lot of opportunity to use it yet but decided to try it out a little last night at 10 pm. Well I did the Wii age test and was brutally surprised to find out i'm 79 in Wii age!! come on! Am i really that unathletic? I guess so. I wasn't the girl who ducked from the volleyball or basketball in highschool gym, or the girl who was ALWAYS picked last for team sports in grade school was I? Well yeah I was. So really this lack of sportability shouldn't be a big surprise!!
I plan on tackleing the Wii Fit some time soon. Just have to take it out of the box first.

gag...

Today is the first day since I started on WW that I have not been able to eat my salad and tuna. For some reason while eating my lunch, the same lunch i have had every day for the last 3 months I started to gag. The salad tasted dry, the spinach tasted bitter,the tuna just plain gross, the only part I could eat was the red pepper and cucumber.
I really hope this doesn't mean I won't be able to eat my salad for lunch from now on! It ensures that I get my 5 vegetables a day and I know it is super duper healthy. If the same thing happens tomorrow than I'll have to rethink what I bring for lunch! Oh No! What to bring for 3 points or less? I try to keep my breakfast to 2 or 3 points,(plus 2 points for my coffee-i tried hard to take it with milk and sweetener but enjoy it much more with milk and sugar) lunch to 3 or 4 points and the rest for dinner and snacks.
Maybe i need to mix it up a little anyway because I actually gained .8 pounds this week. I was very dissappointed with this result-and i've heard that when you start eating the same thing everyday your body can get used to it and stop losing weight. I didn't believe it because i have a friend who has been eating the same thing everyday (including dinner) since December and has lost 32 pounds to date!
I'll have to see what next week brings!

was freud right?

There has got to be something to Freud's Oedipus C0mplex. The boy has recently been very very clingy with me and wants me to do everything with him. He won't take a bath unless i'm the one bathing him, he won't get dressed in the morning unless it's me there with him and now his latest "thing" is he won't go to sleep unless I lay with him for "4 minutes"...which usually turns into 40 minutes (a really bad habit we have to get out of ASAP!!)
We noticed this change in his attitude and behaviour over the course of a few months but when I really took note of this is on a recent trip to Niagara Falls. On the way home we stopped at the outlet mall, I wanted to go into La Vie En Rose for a quick look around. Well the boy wouldn't let me go alone so he tagged along while I looked for "new pajamas". He picked out a very sheer, flowy nighty and told me i must buy it because it would look very pretty. So since it was on sale and was the right size I humoured him and bought it....well dont' you think that very night he asked me to put on the pretty pj's because he wanted to see...he was very excited when i showed him the pretty pj's!! Lucky he is not quite 4 yet and his innocence is so beautiful!!

yeah for me...

i've lost 13 pounds to date. That gives me 3 more till i get to my %10 goal. I am going to really try and make it there in the next 2 weeks. Time to get back into the exercising and tracking more regularly. I have been really slack the last 2 weeks-although i haven't really gorged on goodies since now over eating really gives me tummy issues!!
I think my final goal will be 140 lbs. That is more realistic for me to maintain and I think also most realistic at my age!!

37 and counting...

well the big 3-7 is coming tomorrow...cannot believe it! I somethings think i'm 17 and am shocked when i think 20 years have passed since then!!!

On the last day of my 36th year i'll share 37 random things about me..

1. I have lived in the same general neighborhood almost my entire life (within a 5 km radius)

2. I HATE mushrooms but will eat them if they are in a dish and can't be pulled out.

3. Mushrooms and eggplant are the only vegetables I don't like.

4. My last car lasted me 10 years!!!

5. I had the same part-time job for 18 years.

6. I learned to ride a bike at age 8

7. I sucked my thumb till grade 3

8. when i was 4 my neighbor cut off my pigtail!

9. i love taking pictures

10. i have friends from grade one...

11. i get really bad headaches.

12. i am now a nervous driver- amazing what carting kids around does to ones' driving confidance

13. i often worry about my retirement

14. haven't been to a beach since my honeymoon

15. lived overseas for about 18 months

16. i love brushing my hair and keep a comb in my desk at work for when i'm bored

17. i bring my lunch 14 out of 15 days !

18. if i don't bring my lunch i eat a toasted bagel with butter from tim's

19. i stopped drinking double double coffee after discovering HOW fattening they actually are!

20. i take my coffee with double milk and sweetener

21. i love my bran buds with yogurt for breakfast

22. i have held on to a pair of jeans from 1996 in hopes of fitting them again one day (I know-get real!!)

23. my cat Jamie now really annoys me

24. i named my cat Jamie because I was convinced i'd never have a husband and kids and I wanted to name my first born Jamie

25. i have a wicked temper

26. i give in to gossip even when i don't want to

27. i love watching 90210 (even the new one)

28. i often screen my calls

29. i hate cleaning but hate mess

30. instead of cleaning i complain about the mess

31. i love buying cleaning products

32. it takes me forever to find clothes i like

33. i hate spending money

34. i love reading cookbooks/recipes

35. i hate cooking without recipes

36. my favourite color is red

37. i want to train for a 10k run again (did one about 7 years ago and really loved it)

love me a pony tail

I love pony tails. They always look so sexy, young and lovely- on everyone else. Whenever I wear one it just looks like i didn't have time to get ready in the morning (which is usually the case). I would love suggestions on how to get that sexy,cute pony tail I see on so many people (like Sharon on Y&R was sporting a couple of days ago) Perhaps if i had a team of stylists to make my ponytails perfect I could pull them off too?!?!

Spring has sprung

and I know this because the hotdog cart is now outside my office building!! Oh how I love those yummy delicious hotdogs....and oh how I will have to watch others enjoying them while I continue on my weight loss journey. I cannot even imagine how many points are in one of those devine dogs- all beef or not!!

The sun is shining and I have started noticing all these lovely sandals in the windows of my fave shoe stores...do i try on and make an investment or just wear the ones i've got and leave it be- a look at my funds will make the decision for me!!

Should I try on and get a new spring jacket...i have a beige one i bought last year-which i loved but now reminds me of a grandma for some reason, i also have a lovely red Eddie Bauer one I bought a few years ago which i still love but can no longer do up all the buttons (around the hip area to be specific...)...ahhh all these decisions to make!!!

just a few ramblings from a very slow work day!!